Refusing to Counsel: Another Way to Look at Conscience

From Mark Oppenheimer’s article at the New York Times today on the case, taken up by the Christian legal organization Alliance Defense Fund, of a counselor who refused to treat a patient seeking help with a same-sex relationship (Tedesco is the counselor’s lawyer):

“Does it require a Jewish counselor to affirm the religious beliefs of a Muslim client?” Mr. Tedesco asked. He noted that the American Counseling Association allows its members to choose not to work with terminally ill patients considering end-of-life options. That proves, he said, that counselors are sometimes allowed to refuse to treat clients because of a fraught ethical question — so why not when the question is sexuality, and the counselor is Christian?